B.C. humane society ordered to pay after adopting out woman's pets without consent
A humane society in B.C. was implicated in a legal dispute at the Civil Resolution Tribunal in a rift about someone’s pets.
According to the dispute decision, TR said she placed her pets in the care of the Okanagan Humane Society (OHS).
TR told the tribunal that the placement was for emergency foster care while she was experiencing a medical crisis. She alleged that OHS allowed someone else to adopt her pets without her consent permanently.
She asked the tribunal to grant an order requiring OHS to return one dog and two cats and valued the claim at $5,000.
OHS’s defence claimed that TR surrendered her animals. It further alleged that TR told an OHS volunteer that she wanted the pets rehomed.
Here’s what the tribunal determined.
TR owned a dog and four cats, and in May 2024, during a period of illness and crisis, OHS agreed to provide temporary foster care for the five animals. She retrieved her animals in June 2024.
In July 2024, MN, an OHS Volunteer, picked up the five animals and took them into care again.
The crux of the dispute was whether or not TR agreed to surrender her animals to OHS permanently.
TR said that she called OHS President, RR, and asked if the animals could come back to foster while she was ill. TR says that RR said to let them know when she was well and able to take them back.
The tribunal said there was no evidence that TR requested or agreed to a permanent surrender. It also placed significant weight on MN’s statement, because she was an objective witness.
MN and her husband drove to an address where TR was staying. TR came to the door and looked unwell and erratic. MN told TR that she would “make sure every animal finds a loving home, and that she was doing the right thing by surrendering them.”
In response, TR became frantic and yelled out, “None of this was supposed to happen again.”
MN’s husband then loaded the cats and dogs into a vehicle.
While the tribunal accepted MN’s statement that TR was doing the right thing by surrendering animals, it said the statement doesn’t clearly show that TR agreed to surrender them.
OHS’s dispute response suggested that TR stated her animals “needed to be rehomed as she was suicidal and not able to care for them.”
The tribunal found that MN’s statement didn’t support those assertions from OHS.
Unfortunately for TR, because the B.C. humane society no longer had the pets, it could not order the humane society to return the pets to TR, acknowledging the revelation would be upsetting.
The only remedy the tribunal could offer was monetary compensation, and for that, it awarded $3,125, including $3,000 in damages and $125 in tribunal fees, to be paid within 30 days of the decision.